JUON NETWORK 

JUON NETWORK holds the learning and growth of youth as one of our values.  We aim to achieve this by not only teaching students about the environment through voluntary educational workshops but also providing opportunities for youths to participate in various volunteering activities.  

 

There are various environmental programs that students can participate in through JUON.  However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic,  many of our activities are limited.  Therefore, we are also putting our effort on spreading our mission to a wider range of communities.  

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For one of our programs, we have been working on making our own wooden chopsticks (JUON Waribashi) using trees obtained by forest thinning.  Forest overgrowth and neglect is a serious environmental issue in Japan as many forest formerly planted for various uses. Contrary to popular belief, it is actually bad for forest growth to leave these forests to grow on their own. Overgrowth restricts sunlight, which in turn prevents vital forest floor plants from populating the ecosystem. JUON maintains these forests so that the trees are able to thrive, effectively reducing our carbon footprint.  

 

With the leftover wood from thinning, JUON is producing our own sustainable chopsticks as well as providing recycling services to make sure out chopsticks come with zero waste.  Please visit our page to learn more about our work (Explanation in Japanese).

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At the moment, we have not been able to raise awareness of the neglect of Japanese forests among English-speaking communities in Japan.  Thus, through our work on projects such as JUON Waribashi, International school students can help us raising awareness of environmental problems using English skills.

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